Finance Training: Effectiveness and Usefulness

by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, 03 January 2012

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topics:
Human Capital Management Management

tags:
career development changing role of finance organization CIMA management accountants strategy

In examining the types of competency that finance professionals need to fulfil their roles and duties within an organisation, CIMA’s report, Ledgers to Leadership, explores the question of how, and how far, the training and development of finance professionals can enable organisations to achieve the required balance of technical and strategical skills, and to have value-creation agents at the heart of the finance function.

Here again, the views of senior finance professionals were sought separately from those of non-senior finance professionals and non-finance managers. The perspective of senior people – who may be responsible for recruitment strategy and training and development, or who may be very far removed from it – is different from those who are closer to the ‘coalface’.

Training and development methods: Use and usefulness

The types of training and development method evaluated in CIMA’s study are set out in Exhibit 1, and are ranked according to how useful each one was rated by senior finance professionals. Only four methods were rated ‘useful’ (green) at all; the remainder were rated ‘not useful’ (blue).

Click image to enlarge

Exhibit 1: Usefulness of training and development methods (senior personnel)

Senior finance professionals rated on-the-job experience (‘learning through doing’) as the most valuable developmental tool overall. This is supported by CIMA’s interviews and consultations with real-life practitioners: exposure to on-the-job experience is highly valued. It is very notable though, that no single method is evaluated overall as ‘very useful’, although amongst the more formal methods there is a slight preference for all external modes of delivery.

That external education, including working towards a professional qualification or an MBA, is seen as less useful than other forms of training, development, education and knowledge sharing, must give pause for thought to all educators. Many in finance already have a financial qualification, and many organisations prefer to recruit fully qualified people, so this rating may not seem particularly important or relevant.

However, the findings point to a need to do more to enhance the practical value of qualifications, particularly in the earlier years of training – though there is an acknowledged difficulty here in that qualifications have to provide a common curriculum, which is not necessarily oriented towards any particular type of organisation.

Current trends towards employing technologically based modes of delivery for education, training and knowledge sharing are not necessarily leading to improved usefulness: both types involving technology in delivery are among the three types ranked least useful.

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